Midway through Bohemian Rhapsody, the big screen biopic about legendary Queen frontman Freddie Mercury that won four Oscars on Sunday, we see a montage of the critical reviews given to the group’s 1975 song of the same name. Queen had put it out as a single and it wasn’t expected to be a success. At six minutes, it was twice as long as most top 40 hits and its bizarre blend of opera, pop and hard rock was like nothing anyone had ever heard before.
“Pompous and overlong,” concluded one music critic. “All flash and calculation without soul,” opined another. “A song that should be sunk to the bottom of the sea and never heard from again,” concluded a third. If this montage is to be believed, the verdict was universally negative – but the paying public thought otherwise. ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ became the Christmas No 1 that year and by the end of January 1976 it had sold more than a million copies.
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